


Devil’s Grin in the Darkness

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Priest (2011)
Genre: Community: 31_days, Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-19
Updated: 2012-04-19
Packaged: 2017-11-03 22:12:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/386535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Black Hat taunts Priest and Sheriff Hicks with his very presence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devil’s Grin in the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> written for [31_days](http://31-days.livejournal.com) April 19th prompt; heart sweating through my body

I stood in the night darkened street, staring up at the crucified priests, illumined by the play of flames against too lax bodies. Their arms were outspread in an eternal form of supplication, a plea for redemption that would never come for them. I barely reacted when Hicks came to stand beside me, to stare up at the same prone and hanging forms hanging above us, ominous reminders of Black Hat’s continued reign over us all. The heat from the fires washed over us, setting flickering shadows to dancing over our skin and faces, making the Sheriff beside me look older than his years. 

He seemed still no more than a boy to me, despite the aging effects of the flames, and I envied him his youth. Even though I knew that I wasn’t so old myself, I felt older, dogged by years of hard graft and fighting vampires in a war that never seemed to end. This was despite the fact that the Church had decreed all vampires wiped out; I knew they were wrong and Black Hat, my former brother in servitude to the Church had physically disproved their doubts. I wondered if the Church believed me now, whether they’d even heard or taken notice of all the things that had transpired since I’d informed them of the vampire uprising. I still remembered the sting of shame through being mocked out of the building by cold gazes and disbelieving words of my superiors. 

I wondered if they even cared anymore; theocratic rule and the walls of their churches had dulled their senses to the needs of the people. Even the people seemed like sheep, kept up in their pens and mocking those who were different, staring at Priests and Priestesses alike as though they - we - were freaks. I guess to them we looked exactly that, like freaks. To them, we were no more than a defunct order of warriors that flitted through the streets with no purpose other than to offer a spectacle to be stared at and wondered over. 

“Makes you sick, don’t it?” Hicks said, softly. “What a person can do to another.” 

“He’s not a person, anymore,” I corrected him bitterly. “He used to be one, but not anymore.” 

Laughter echoed around us then, chillingly close. It seemed to slither through the very air to slide sensuously against every patch and scrap of exposed skin I had. I turned quickly, eyes narrowed, body tensed for a fight. That laughter came again, deep, devilish, distinctly touchable in the midnight air. 

“Come out, Black Hat. I know you’re there,” I called out, eyes narrowed to scan the darkness surrounding us. 

Laughter met my words and sudden movement shimmered through the shadows at the very edge of the fire’s light. Danger danced through the air, sliding across skin in ominous swathes and setting my heart to pounding in my chest, painful beats that almost made my heart sweat right out of my body.

“Stop it, damn you,” I growled out, eyes fixed upon the dark figure that waited in the shadows.

A face leant into the light a little, orange light lending ethereal beauty to a handsome face, yellow eyes glinting and sparking in the glow of the flames. Fangs flashed in the meagre light, a devil’s grin in the darkness, and a chuckle slithered through the air again.

“Try and catch me, Priest,” Black Hat said, head dipping down slightly.

The brim of the hat shadowed his face, yet his eyes still glowed with some inner fire as he stared across fathomless gulfs between us. I knew then, that he was no longer my brother, that I could not stand beside him any longer. He was too different, too far removed from what we’d both been. It seemed to me then that he enjoyed his new status, that he revelled in taunting me. I blinked and Black Hat was gone, as though he’d never been there, yet I could still feel his very presence hanging thick in the air. I turned, catching sight of Hicks still standing beside me, wide-eyed with fright and wonder.

“Keep it together, kid,” I said, quietly. “He’s not here to harm us. This time.”

“This time,” Hicks repeated, voice sounding deceptively young even as his fingers twitched towards his weapon.

“Leave it,” I ordered, harshly. “It won’t help you. We need to catch up with him.”

“If we can,” Hicks said, morosely.

“We will,” I said, defiantly and turned away to stride through the midnight inky black streets. 

Hicks had no choice but to follow.


End file.
